Bed Bugs and Earthquakes

I thought I would give you all a glimpse of some natural phenomena of Nicaragua, as we have experienced it in the first week:

Bugs — Never have I seen more bugs, insects, pests, mosquitoes, flies, ants, and mystery black bugs in my entire life. The ants here are big enough to be classified as rodents. Luke was bitten by one of these ants and it drew a fair amount of blood. Stepping on an ant hill here means Stop, Drop, and Roll, or you might not make it out alive! The other night we had an ant infestation in the girls’ room in which hundreds of ants were carrying their larvae up the walls of our bathroom and sleeping area.

The flies sit on my legs, ram my face, and dive-bomb my food at every opportunity. My legs and arms are covered in red bites from what I thought was mosquitoes or mystery black bugs, but which turn out to be……bed bugs. Yes, we have bed bugs. Eddie saw my arms and legs and said, “That’s exactly what my arms looked like when I had bed bugs a couple years ago.”

All of us girls started putting together the details of our bug bites, including the fact that we kept waking up with more bites than we went to bed with, and many of us would wake up throughout the night scratching. One night, Drea and I were both awake at 2:30am scratching. We share a bunk bed, so I could hear her above me. Most of us sleep with mosquito nets over our bunks and also I sleep inside my sleeping bag liner, so I knew it wasn’t an outside predator. So, we made a group decision to toss the mattresses outside on the porch and sleep on our sleeping pads. Ta-dah! No more bug bites in bed.

Our legs and arms still look chewed up, but our sleep is peaceful knowing we are now alone in our beds.

Earthquake — Minnesota doesn’t have earthquakes. I’ve never felt one until this week when a 7.9 earthquake hit off the coast of Costa Rica and spread to Nicaragua. I was sitting on the floor in the little girls’ room at Quinta Esperanza helping them study for an upcoming test, when the room started to move. At first, I thought it was dizziness that was causing my head to spin. I closed my eyes and tried to shake it off, but then it kept moving. I turned to Abigail, who is 10 years old, and her eyes were big and filled with fear. I said, “Que pasa? (What’s happening?)” and I continued to look around the room in awe.

I thought earthquakes always involved shaking, and I always pictured frames falling off the wall and plates breaking. It wasn’t like that at all. It felt like the entire house was swiftly swaying back and forth, back and forth. It was as if the house was slowly being brought out to sea, swept up in a wave.

We ran outside to find the rest of the people with open jaws, looking around in disbelief. We all said, “Did that just happen?” with big smiles on our faces. We laughed for a long time about how panicked we all were. Thankfully we are all safe and sound, and we all have an interesting story to tell.
 

Despite the bugs and the Earth shakes, we are pushing through and learning to trust God no matter where we are and what situations we face. Honestly, the beg bugs and ant infestation really drew us all together. I am reminded every day that I cannot control my environment in terms of what happens to me, but what I can control is my attitude. I can let bed bugs ruin my entire month, or I can laugh about it and press on.

The Earth trembled here on September 5^th, but we will not tremble or be shaken. God provided us with divine protection, and we will not be afraid to continue our work here for His kingdom.